LEGO 7094 King’s Castle Siege review - part 2

This is part 2 of my review of LEGO 7094 King’s Castle Siege from yesterday’s blog post that contains part 1.

Note: A section of the left side wall is specially designed to detach easily if you push hard onto it.

Warning: The remaining photos may not be suitable for young and innocent minds. If you are over 18 years old, you may proceed. I shall not be responsible for any trauma suffered as a result of seeing the contents of that will follow, LOL!

Suddenly without warning, a section of the left side wall is smashed into the castle courtyard and in troops a gang of evil skeleton warriors!!

A soldier who is leaving his resting quarters to take a leak is so horrified at the sight before him that he pees in his pants!  He lets out a loud scream but that is the last sound he makes.  His attackers go on to make short work of him!

The soldier on top of the rear side tower hears his comrade cry out but before he can react, a giant black dragon known as a nocturgon lands suddenly on the tower and grabs the helpless soldier with its fore claws.

Note: The right fore claws of the nocturgon are able to grasp a minifig by the torso very easily.

“Let me go, you wicked monster!” cries out the captured soldier.

The nocturgon understands and complies… what a stupid phrase for that soldier to say!

That soldier also becomes a goner like his comrade.  The nasty skeleton warriors then mount the nocturgon and direct it to the tower prison.

Removing the prison bars is a piece of cake for this super strong nocturgon.  The skeleton knight who was locked within the prison has been freed!

Note: The prison bars on this side of the wall can be easily detached as they are only pegged to the floor edge of the prison.

A crown knight comes riding out the back gates towards this godless beast but the mighty nocturgon tosses the heavy prison bars straight at him…

…and knocks him off his saddle!  He lays very still and never recovers from that crushing blow.  His riderless horse gallops into the waiting hands of the black skeleton warrior, who has something sinister in mind for the noble steed.

One touch with his black poisoned hands turns the once lively horse onto a skeleton steed for the black skeleton warrior!  He takes off on his new ride to begin his raid of the castle.

The black skeleton warrior rides to the stables at one of the front towers where he finds 2 more white horses.

Note: The ground floor interior of each of the front towers can easily accommodate 2 horses.  This Castle 7094 has a white crown horse, Skeleton Tower 7093 has another white crown horse, Final Joust 7009 has one more, and Skeleton Carriage 7092 has a brown crown horse.  If you own all these sets, their horses can be stabled in this castle.

Note: The second floor of each front tower can also accomodate a few minifigs inside.  They are great as living quarters for the (soon to be doomed) royal family.  The base of the opened drawbridge tilts up and caused many of the crown soldiers to trip and fall.  With so many of them on medical leave at this critical point, it’s no wonder that the castle’s defences are severely weakened!

The black skeleton casts his evil spell and claims 2 more skeleton horses for his fellow skeleton warriors!

Meanwhile, the other skeleton warriors are searching the throne room for the king, who is hiding and cowering in the mini overhanging tower.

“Please don’t let them find me, please don’t let them find me….” prays the king and he drinks some more wine from his seemingly never empty globlet. (!?)

But the nocturgon hears his breathing and finally flushes the panicking king out from his hiding place.  He takes cover behind his throne, while still holding on to his globlet.  Why is he still taking the goblet with him at this critical moment!???

Instead of making his way to the treasure room below his throne room to retrieve the magical golden sword to fight off these evil dark magic forces, the king is forced to retreat to the top of the keep by the relentless skeleton warriors.  He never reaches his golden sword. . .

This is the place where the king is last seen in this castle attack.  Many would later believe that he perished in this sudden castle siege.  Others would later claim that his ghost eventually ends up haunting the ruins of this once great and impenetrable castle… together with the apparition of his prized collectible golden goblet, that he refused to let go till the very end…

Note: That narrow connection bridge that links the throne keep to the adjacent rear watch tower, has a technic brick at each end to allow the bridge to swivel 360 degrees.  The initial purpose is to throw enemies off balance from the bridge.  But in this case, it flips to the side when the king lands on it, causing him to hang on to it for his dear life.

The archers on top of the front towers fire their arrows desperately at the enemies.  It’s unfortunate that the catapults are not designed to allow them to swivel around to fire at targets within the castle.

The end comes for this archer when the nocturgon emerges from nowhere and grabs his head in its massive snapping jaws!

The nocturgon then flings the first archer into the second archer on top of the other tower, knocking both of them out flat in an instant!

In a final show of strength, the nocturgon heaves and pushes against the front castle walls…

…and brings down not just the gates, but the 2 front towers as well!  The skeleton warriors ride out in victory on their newly acquired skeleton horses.

Note: The front towers are connected to the side walls by only a single technic pin at 1 spot, hence the whole front walls section can ‘fall over’ very easily, and this is one thing I dislike about this castle.  It makes carrying the castle in one piece impossible!

Instructions manual suggestions – As the various wall and tower sections of the castle can be detached, it gives versatility in arranging the castle architecture. The instructions manual provided some examples to follow.

Spare and unused parts – Mostly technic parts, skeleton warriors’ arms, claws and nocturgon horn.

Here are the extra skeleton and normal horses who guest starred in the above story.  They came from Skeleton Carriage 7092, Final Joust 7009 and Skeleton Tower 7093.

Here’s a size comparison photo of Kingdoms King’s Castle 7946 with King’s Castle Siege 7094, which I modified slightly in this photo to be more modular in shape.  The 7946 castle (which costs SGD 219.90) is smaller than castle 7094 and has lesser minifigs, hence it’s cheaper than the latter.

Overall this castle is more fun to play with than the Kingdoms King’s Castle 7946 because of the fantasy elements, that bring out more imagination to the play.  It’s a decent castle set to own. It has lots of play areas, but it’s also quite understaffed like castle 7946.   There is 1 king, 1 crown knight, 4 crown soldiers, 1 skeleton knight, 3 skeleton warriors, 1 white horse with silver crown barding, an enormous black dragon (nocturgon), plus weapons & accessories.

Minus ½ point for too few crown soldiers to guard such a large castle.  I’ll prefer to swop the 2 white skeleton warriors for 2 more crown minifigs. Perhaps, a second crown knight and another horse (with gold crown barding) could had been added.  The skeleton knight and his nocturgon are already enough to wreck extensive havoc on the castle by themselves.  That humongous winged reptile is longer than the castle itself, if not for its curved tail! ::)

Minus ½ point for ‘incomplete’ rear main front gate tower such that the raised portcullis looks awkwardly exposed ‘in the air’.

Minus ½ point for the sticker drawings are very cartoonish, making the set look like Duplo for toddlers.  I did not apply the stickers to my set.

Minus ½ point for bricks that detach too easily.  It makes the set easy to dismantle but the castle walls break apart too easily when I just want to shift the set around for multi-angled photo shots.  This annoyed me. >:(

Score: 8/10

Although castle 7094 scores the same with castle 7946 in my reviews, I also consider their sizes and features with their original retail prices.

The main attraction of this set is definitely the mighty nocturgon, which is the reason why I bought it.  Initially I felt that the nocturgon looked too much like a Duplo toy, but its appearance grew on me after I got my emeragon (the green version of the nocturgon) from the Troll Warship 7048.

The large LEGO castle sets released after 2000 have mostly been disappointing in appearances, as they mainly had a front façade and no side or back walls.  Castle 7094 celebrated the return of the large castle sets with all 4 walls enclosing a courtyard.

This castle has already been discontinued and I bought mine towards the tail end of the LEGO Castle line early this year.  I normally don’t collect the large castle sets but decided to venture into doing so this year. Since then it has been no turning back for me!

If you don’t have this set yet, I think it’s very hard to get at original retail price and below now.  The Fantasy Era Castle theme is over, so it’s better to let it pass and not chase after those sets anymore.  If you still want to, be prepared to pay more for them in the resale market.

If you have this set and have not opened it yet, you’re missing out a lot by leaving it MISB.  I highly recommend that you find the time to open and build your set to enjoy the fantastic castle features it has.  Kids will find this castle very fun to play with as well!

Thanks for viewing!